So I am back to blogging. I have those moments, where I can’t wait to sit down in front of a blank screen and just let the words pour out of me. Then there are days, weeks and months where just looking at the laptop makes me tired.

So I set myself a target that by the end of the year, I would have at least had a year’s worth of posts to sit back and read. Fingers crossed I pull that off and don’t throw in the towel half – way through.

I was going to start my goal earlier, however load shedding wanted to show me how powerful it is by taking all our electricity away. I get home and there is load shedding, I wake up and there is load shedding. I get home and there is no water and I wake up there is no water. I just give up. I am not sure how our government expects us to live in such conditions.

If I have had more than 4 hours of sleep in the last 100 odd days then that is a lot. My sleep schedule works around load shedding. When there is power, everyone is up and trying to get everything done before the power goes off again and when there is no power, all I do is sleep or sit in the dark working myself up over the government.

The killer is the 04:00 to 06:00 in the morning, that means I have to get up at 2am to wash, have coffee and make a flask of hot water for everyone who didn’t get up at 2am. Then I eat breakfast, get dressed and when I am ready, I climb back onto of the bed and nap till its time to get up and go to work. Then if load shedding happens between 06:00 – 08:00, I still have to get up an do all those things and then get the cars out of the yard. The other killer is the 20:00 – 22:00 in the night, what does one do in that time. I sleep and then when the power comes on at 22:00 I have to force myself to get up and do everything before the sleep overpowers me again.

Cooking is more like survivor style cooking, its quick meals or takeaways and baking has just taken a back seat. I am in no mood to put a cake in, have it bake half way through and then have the power die just as it is rising. Nope, no thank you. Baking will resume when Eskom becomes more powerful.

Shopping is the same, I haven’t been to the stores in over 100 days. Most of what is in the fridge, is what my dad feels buying in the shops, so meals are catered around his purchases, which frankly leaves much to be desired.

With this load shedding at the moment, I am trying to keep the freezer empty, seeing as the person who is in charge of putting the power back on in my area is forever lasting an hour late. I don’t really want to freeze defrosted meat that went bad.

While rummaging through the freezer, I did come across a whole yellow tail fish that I bought sometime and well it was just sitting in the freezer, staring at me with its frozen eye balls, so I thought why not finally try Prim Reddy’s baked fish recipe.

I normally don’t bake fish, I never know what you are supposed to stuff it with, however this recipe was super easy to follow and it provided with me a filling, which was just up my street. It only required 30 minutes in the oven, which left me with more than enough time to eat, wash dishes and pack it away before darkness again.

Verdict, I loved it, my dad loved it, although he didn’t want to eat the eye ball even after I double dared him. Wimp I tell you. I would have eaten it, had I been dared, but no one dared me so I didn’t eat it 😊

Ingredients:

• 1 x whole yellowtail fish, cleaned and gutted.
• 1 x onion, peeled, washed and thinly sliced.
• 4 x roma tomatoes, washed and thinly sliced.
• 1 x green pepper, washed, deseeded and cut into strips.
• 1 x red pepper, washed, deseeded and cut into strips.
• 100g x Danish feta, crumbled.
• ½ x cup olive oil.
• 5 x cloves garlic crushed.
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons.
• 1 x tsp salt.
• Black pepper to taste.
• 100g x butter, melted.
• Lemon wedges, to serve.

Method:

• Line a baking tray with a piece of foil, big enough to wrap the fish in.
• Place the yellow tail fish in the middle of the foil.
• Using a sharp knife, make even slits on the surface of the fish.
• Stuff the inside of the fish with half the tomatoes, onion, green pepper, red pepper and Danish feta.
• In a bowl whisk together the olive oil, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, sale and black pepper.
• Pour half the mixture over the fish.
• Arrange the rest of the onions, toamtoes, red pepper, green pepper and Danish feta on the surface of the fish.
• Pour the remaining olive oil mixture over the vegetables on the surfacew of the fish.
• Wrap the foil over the fish and pop into a preheated oven.
• Bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, open the foil and spoon some of the liquid in the pan over the fish.
• Arrange some lemon wedges around the fish before serving.